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earlier in this thread, we were trying to figure out how many squares to grow a specific veggie for canning purposes. Has anyone kept track of how much they grew of something and how many Qts/pints, etc they canned?

I grew 4 Burpee Picklebush plants and was able to get 18 pints of pickles (15 cucumbers = 6 pints.)

I grew 16 squares of bush beans and was able to get about 6- family of 5 size servings froze.

I know this is an old thread, point me to a more current one if there is one....

I found this on an Ed Humes page and thought I would share....

for a family of four and its in rows, but he does say how many seeds to be planted so you could convert that to squares

http://www.humeseeds.com/seedneed.htm

has anyone got any more info they would like to share?

I know our 8 squares of pole green/yellow beans gave us about 50 pints of green beans

we did have some bush beans, about 14 sq's that were a late planting after pulling our potatoes for fall.... they produced well but not as much as the pole beans did.....so with fresh eating ..... we also got 3 gal size freezer bags full......

from now on.....pole beans will be for canning or freezing and bush beans will be for fresh eating.....to fill empty squares

for a pole dry bean (soup bean) we get about 1 pint of beans after they dry per square

for a bush dry bean.....not really enough to put away....but...we still plant them because we love them and will still save them for soups and they do grow well for us and they can be eaten as a green bean if picked early.....

in our 6x8 bed of potatoes (48 squares) we were able to can 7 QTS with lots of fresh eating and some we didn't eat fast enough that will be used for some of our seed potatoes this year.....we are hoping to get more potatoes this year as our home grown potatoes are the ONLY potato our 7 year old will eat unless its a French fry

I know might not be to helpful as growing conditions vary so much....we planted 2 6x8 beds of corn and only ate 2 fresh, because of critters.....err...this year an electric fence is going up

I know its not cost effective using space for corn and potatoes.....but we grow what we love to eat and so far we still have lots of those canned green beans on the shelf.....LOL......maybe will shall grow more dry beans this year.....

we think of a square as a side dish or half of a meal and are thrilled to get more out of a square then that

this year Im hoping to use more of the veggies that we like canned and turning them into what we call meal starters/fast food...... making a soup with the veggies that we pessure can and after opening the jar could be eaten like a soup or be turned into a meal by adding rice, pasta, tortilla, bread, a deluxe salad or even a pizza by draining off the liquid from the jar......

I thought by the end of summer I was sick of tomatoes & wouldn't touch one again until July. But let me tell you, when I made soup last week from the bag of frozen maters it was superb! And when I cracked open a qt last nite for my pasta, while I was eating it I was in heaven and ate the whole pot (3 nights worth). Afterward I was almost in tears that there are only 2 more qts left on the shelf. Never in my life have I tasted such! No more store bought pasta sauce for THIS gal.

@sanderson wrote:CC, Do you remember which varieties you grew and for what use? I am hoping for 12 plants if I can find room!!

You mean the tomatoes? Sure I remember. 3 Super Sonics for everything and anything coz they are the best! 3 Sungold & 2 Sweet 100's for snacking. 1 potted Plum that I thought I'd use for canning but we ate most of them instead as they came in the earliest of the large maters. 2 ea of pink & red Brandywine for sandwiches but we didn't care for the pink as they were bland so I froze & canned them with the extra overflow of all the others. 1 Beefsteak for sandwiches and such which I will definitely grow again. Then there were about 5 surprise volunteer Black Cherry maters in the rose garden that I loved and saved seed of.

Sooo...I won't be growing Sweet 100's due to cracking and Pink Brandywine due to no flavor or the Red as I want the space for the Beefsteaks instead. The rest will be repeats...but MORE! And they will all get mixed together and put into the freezer or canned.

Thanks for the review. I bought new seed for: Arkansas Traveler, Brandywine, Amish Paste, Beefsteak, San Marzano Lungo, Gypsy, Cherokee Purple, and Roma. I saved seeds from a Brandywine I bought at the Exposition, and a small yellow pear-shaped, an orange tomato, and a "black tomato" from the Farmer's Market.

Holy moley, sanderson, you sound like me last year. That's a lot of plants even if you only plant one per variety.

I'd love to do something like that again but rain out of space due to rotation needs! Someone writing in another thread about using straw bales,though,got me to thinking that might be a way around rotation problems ... just grow in fresh bales every year.

I don't think we have a rotation problem with MM, Marc. Since we are adding compost after every change over it's like a new planting site, I think. I've put my tomatoes in the same places for 2 yrs now and will do it again this summer. I'll let you know what happens.

This is a tomato experiment year! I also want to try canning them this summer. I bought some pints and half pint jars for small portions for the 2 of us. I'm eye-balling a spot for a 2' x 2' box! Won't DH be happy! He still has the 2 x 4 and 2 x 2 to build. And the 3 x 3 x 3 ' frame for the new compost area!! The peppers will go in pots so I can keep them in a sunny place.

CapeCoddess -- the idea that adding a scoop of compost would eliminate problems of disease organisms and bugs being left over is one I've read here before and I think I even read it in the book, but it doesn't seem logical to me. New soil doesn't mean the old soil is gone or unavailable. A tomato plant, for instance, can have a substantial root ball and reach far beyond the space that a scoop of compost would take up. I'll be interested in hearing about your results, especially if you've previously had to deal with bugs or diseases in those same spots you'll replant with tomatoes.

At any rate, I planted in a neighbor's raised beds last year, and had to take the existing soil, which I amended with some compost. I couldn't afford to dump out his beds and fill them with MM last year and probably won't be able to do it this year either. Also, we share what I grow, but I'm not comfortable with spending my short supply of money improving someone else's property, and am not really in a position to do so anyway.

@CapeCoddess wrote:I thought by the end of summer I was sick of tomatoes & wouldn't touch one again until July. But let me tell you, when I made soup last week from the bag of frozen maters it was superb! And when I cracked open a qt last nite for my pasta, while I was eating it I was in heaven and ate the whole pot (3 nights worth). Afterward I was almost in tears that there are only 2 more qts left on the shelf. Never in my life have I tasted such! No more store bought pasta sauce for THIS gal.

I'll be growing more than 13 plants of maters this year. CC

I made soup a few days ago from my canned tomatoes. There is no store-bought canned tomato that can come close to that wonderful taste! I'm planning which ones to plant as I dream of fresh tomatoes on my tongue!

SweetmamaSidney, NE

Last edited by camprn on 1/20/2014, 11:10 am; edited 1 time in total (Reason for editing : fixed quote box)

@Marc Iverson wrote:CapeCoddess -- the idea that adding a scoop of compost would eliminate problems of disease organisms and bugs being left over is one I've read here before and I think I even read it in the book, but it doesn't seem logical to me. New soil doesn't mean the old soil is gone or unavailable. A tomato plant, for instance, can have a substantial root ball and reach far beyond the space that a scoop of compost would take up.

Mark, I've decided not to ever rotate all four of my boxes with north side indeterminate tomatoes because I have 8 ft. tall semi-permanent cattle panels installed there. I want to continue growing toms in the same location. I don't want diseases and pests to take hold either, is there still a solution? I think so --

To rotate crops I'm thinking of pulling out the soil mix where the tomatoes grew and bring it to the opposite side of the bed. Pull out that soil and transport it over to the tomato squares with the trellis. With a little elbow grease I've now rotated the soil mix. Then write it down in my garden notebook and I think there will be good results. What do you think, crazy or doable?

I typically will only rotate crops if I have had a disease issue with certain plants.

I am sticking with growing at least 12 gilbertie and at least 12 san marzanos to give me enough fruit to put up and last me through to next season. I am planning on planting more than 8 plants of kale and 12 plants of chard for the same reason. I am going to try to grow more peas this year.

There is some good info and calculators for plantin for food preserving here.http://smallfarm.about.com/od/designingandplanning/a/htplangarden.htm

@Marc Iverson wrote:CapeCoddess -- the idea that adding a scoop of compost would eliminate problems of disease organisms and bugs being left over is one I've read here before and I think I even read it in the book, but it doesn't seem logical to me. New soil doesn't mean the old soil is gone or unavailable. A tomato plant, for instance, can have a substantial root ball and reach far beyond the space that a scoop of compost would take up.

Mark, I've decided not to ever rotate all four of my boxes with north side indeterminate tomatoes because I have 8 ft. tall semi-permanent cattle panels installed there. I want to continue growing toms in the same location. I don't want diseases and pests to take hold either, is there still a solution? I think so --

To rotate crops I'm thinking of pulling out the soil mix where the tomatoes grew and bring it to the opposite side of the bed. Pull out that soil and transport it over to the tomato squares with the trellis. With a little elbow grease I've now rotated the soil mix. Then write it down in my garden notebook and I think there will be good results. What do you think, crazy or doable?

Wow, that sounds like as good a solution as could even be possible. Great idea! If you're willing to do the work. What do you think about using a diluted bleach solution on the the wood and/or bottoms of those planting areas? Bleach is very non-toxic to us humans, in smallish amounts.

Or was it 10 parts per million (ppm)? Laundry bleach is 5% or 50,000 ppm. The more you dilute bleach, the more the active ingredient. A tablespoon for a quart sprayer or 1/4 cup per gallon should be plenty powerful. I had it charted out when I worked and had to advise people on disinfecting, but the chart is boxed away with my past. The instructions on my bottle of bleach states 3/4 c per gallon but I don't think that strong is necessary, except for fecal and hazardous body fluid contamination.